NCAA Div. I Men: Stanford Swims to 20th Straight Pac-10 Title

By Bill Bell

LONG BEACH, Calif., March 3. SKIP KENNEY, with a mini-cigar in one hand (don't worry: it was unlit!) and the Pac-10 Championship trophy in the other, pondered the question: Was this his most satisfying title ever?

"They're all equally special but I would have to think our first championship [1982] was the one that means the most. When I came here, all I wanted to do was develop ONE conference title winner. To have won 20-straight team championships…it boggles the mind.

"Mind-boggling or not, Kenney's Cardinal, ranked No. 2 nationally behind defending national champ Texas, kept their victory streak intact this evening at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, splashing to an 844.5-722.5 point victory over Coach Mark Schubert's runners-up USC Trojans. It was SC's best finish since Schubert took over the men's program from legendary coach Peter Daland in the mid'90s. Schubert became Troy's women's coach at the start of the 1991-92 season.

Third were Cal's Golden Bears (540.5), followed by Arizona (538), Arizona State (360.5) and Washington (190). Stanford won nine events during the three-day meet, including the 100 back-breast-fly trio, the 200 back-fly-IM and the 200 free relay and 200-400 medley relays too. SC, led by Sydney Olympians Klete Keller and Erik Vendt, won six races — a pair each by Keller and Vendt, the 200 breast by Ryosuke Imai and the 800 free relay).

"Obviously it's a great thrill to win and an even greater thrill to have won 20-consecutive titles," said Kenney, "but what's most satisfying is the opportunity to work with all the great swimmers we've had here at Stanford over the years. I can still remember our first conference champion, Wade Flemons in the 100 back, and thinking to myself: 'Wow, we won a title.'" (The coach forgets he had another titlest his second year on The Farm, 1650 winner Monte Brown.) "Every year we aspire to win the conference title, that's our principal goal, but I never would have believed we could go 20 for 20. The conference is just too competitive."

The evening's proceedings kicked off with Vendt's second win, a 14:56.80-15:01.39 1650 triumph over teammate Keller. Third was Arizona's Ty Painter (15:02.11) but he's been faster this season with his 14:52.18 pr from the Longhorn Invitational in Austin the first weekend of December."Ty'll be there at the end," offers Arizona coach Frank Busch. "He's worked harder than ever since joining our program (as a transfer from Kansas last year) and I expect him to be very competitive at NCAAs."

Arizona's now-graduated Ryk Neethling won the NCAA 1650 free from 1997 through 1999 but was "upset" at last year's championship by SC's Vendt, who set an American record en route to victory and then helped push Michigan's Chris Thompson to the 1500 free AR at Sydney in September while earning the bronze medal. This same trio plus Keller will almost undoubtedly be on the blocks in the finals at College Station in three weeks (NCAAs) and Michigander Tom Dolan's American-NCAA record of 14:29.31 may be ripe for plucking.

Another record that may well bite the dust the final weekend of the month — actually two records — are the 50-100 free standards. The latter belongs to former UCLA star Tom Jager (19.05) while the century mark of 41.80 by Cal's Matt Biondi has lasted since the '87 championships. At last year's Pac-10s in Federal Way Cal's Polish Olympian, Bart Kizierowski, raced to a fast 42.29 meet record. Had NCAAs been a yards meet instead of short-courwse meters, he may have had a shot at Biondi's standard. However, it was and he didn't so that was that.

Tonight Cal soph Anthony Ervin took that mark down even further as he blasted to a 42.21 win — No. 1 nationally and the sixth-fastest performance of all-time (third performer). When Biondi went 41.80 his 50 split was 20.25. Ervin was out in 19.91! Nineteen point ninety-one? That's a good 50 free time in and of itself.

Cal coach Nort Thornton, who guided Biondi at Berkeley, thinks he "holds more water but this guy gets after it like nobody else." Amazing! Ervin also set a Pac-10 record in the 50 free opening night (19.11, tops nationally) and went a pr 47.74 100 back for fourth last evening. But the coup de grace–the piece de resistence –was his anchor split on the Cal 400 sprint relay tonight, the meet's final race.

With 100 yards to go Stanford led its erstwhile Bay Area neighbor, 2:10.06 – 2:10.32. But waiting on the blocks was Superman, aka Ervin, and by the 350 mark he was past Card anchor Andrew Schnell as if he were anchored to the wall. Ervin hit the pad with 50 yards to go in 2:29.77 (19.45). Stanford's time was 2:30.66. At the end, Ervin split a 41.88 and Cal won, 2:52.20-2:53.48.The times are second- and third-fastest nationally behind Texas' awesome 2:51.32 from tonight's Big 12 Championships.

In Schnell's "defense," let it be said that he's just a freshman, although a very promising one, and he was up against the Olympic 50 free gold medalist — enough to give any swimmer a severe case of jitters! Other Stanford winners included freshman Markus Rogan in the 200 back (pr 1:42.58 and No. 3 nationally). Rogan previously won the 200 IM opening day and was runner-up to teammate Randall Bal in the 100 back.

Card Peter Marshall, yet another freshman, was runner-up in the longer backstroke race (pr 1:43.57) and he ranks fourth nationally going into NCAAs. In the 200 breast Imai defended his title with a thrilling, come-from- behind 1:57.68-1:57.96 win over Card rookie Michael Bruce. Bruce was top qualifier (1:56.59), a mere .01 off Imai's Pac-10 meet record from last season.

The 200 fly went to Stanford's Adam Messner (1:44.04) with teammate Steve Brown (1:44.24) runner-up. Messner's pr is 1:43.34 from last year's championship and that time is still the meet record.

While Ervin's two meet records were scintillating, so too was the performance of Card frosh Bobby O'Bryan, who won the 100 fly in a pr 47.13 and tonight was an "amazing" second in the 100 free — NCAA automatic cut of 43.59.

At press time, Swimmer and Coach of the Meet honors had not yet been announced but our vote goes to Ervin and Schubert, respectively.